900 Gallon Reef Project
- Thread starter Bennytheblenny
- Start date
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
Just purchased a AI Hydra 52 unit to play around with on the tank. I will toss up some pictures once I install it. Unfortunatley after the last tank crash I am left with only clams and zoas at the moment, which seem to be thriving. I have not replaced corals yet until I get my lighting issues squared away and some other problems. With a new baby in the house, I haven't had much time to spend with the system.
scubadan206
Member
subscribed... will start reading your thread from the start...
Daniel:wildone:
Daniel:wildone:
leveldrummer
New member
amazing tank for sure. Im gonna have to go back and read through this whole thread again later.
scubadan206
Member
Just finished the thread. Really good stuff! Lots of ups and downs, lots of $$$$$.. As far as lights go, Have you looked into the new Radion Gen3. New LED's have the tech with controlabillity, and compatibility with our Apex. The newest even have UV spectrum, not sure if its good or not. I have the gen2 radions running at 50% on my 120 gal tank. If it was my choice, I would use the new Radions for spectrum and PAR punch, along with Kessil wide angle for making the colors POP!!! The Kessil could be your replacement for MH at a 20K of Kelvin, and no additional heat. 120 watt LED=BETTER than 400 watt MH. In every way.:frog:
P.S. Find a local on RC with on overgrown frag tank. They should be willing to share...
Daniel :wildone:
P.S. Find a local on RC with on overgrown frag tank. They should be willing to share...
Daniel :wildone:
scubadan206
Member
P.S. If you still have your old LED setup, give Scott a look, Slief on RC. I think he still has the same setup as you for lighting and his day job specializes in computer software backups....He's also well versed in Apex advanced programming. :bounce2::bounce3::bounce2::bounce3:
Daniel :wildone:
Daniel :wildone:
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
wrxreefer823
New member
Simply stunning.
SiXLiNe
New member
That should be some fun.
scubadan206
Member
Cool!!:eek2: Are these the new gen3 , or slightly older gen2? You may want to ditch the hanging kit. I'm not too impressed with them. They work OK, don't get me wrong, and with that many you will have lots of options. I would suggest some kind of rail system where you could slide them around to "fine tune" them to even out the spread and eliminate dark spots. Wish you the best. Are your old lights trash? Have you given up on them?:sad1:
Show us the new corals. I know you've got 'em. You're an addict like the rest of us....:bigeyes: You wouldn't go "all out" unless you have something that needs it....:fun4:
Daniel :wildone:
Show us the new corals. I know you've got 'em. You're an addict like the rest of us....:bigeyes: You wouldn't go "all out" unless you have something that needs it....:fun4:
Daniel :wildone:
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
All of them are the brand new Gen3 Pros. I am going to use the standard kits until I find a rail system I like. I have 7 of 8 already mounted and will probably need 1-2 more or 1-2 Kessils to fill in some spots.
scubadan206
Member
If you buy Kessil, will you use them just to add more light? Or will you use them as actinics? You could buy some of the older 150's at 20K and just mount them up higher. That was what I was thinking. They're only like $250 and would only run 90 watts of pure blue light. Although the newer controlable 360 model is Apex ready and could be on roughly the same schedule as the Radions.
Isn't it cool that these new lights could still be running when your little one is in college? :dance:
Best of luck.
Daniel :wildone:
Isn't it cool that these new lights could still be running when your little one is in college? :dance:
Best of luck.
Daniel :wildone:
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
I had to purchase 2 Kessils to provide some additional coverage due to the bracing of the tank. The Radions are in and they look amazing! First time I have dealt with a light that was truly plug and play. My issue now is getting the right coverage balance. Par readings at the bottom of the tank are in the 150-175 range in the well covered areas, need to put the kessils in to address a few spots reading 50-100. Of course I had to run out and purchase a few frags:
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
2 Kessil 360Ns have come in and I am mounting them now to provide additional coverage. These things look very cool, they just dont seem to cover an area larger than 18x18 very well.
scubadan206
Member
Yeah. The Kessil's were at the top of my list at one time, but I thought better of it when I determined I would need 4 at a minimum for my 120 tank. Instead I have two Radions running lengthwise. The coverage is slightly poor on LED pucks. This seems to be the only advantage of the large reflectors of MH. It seems to be a [line-of-sight] thing. I wonder if any one has ever tried turning a kessil upside down with a big reflector? I'm happy to hear of the high PAR #'s at the depth of your big tank. I always hoped I could grow clams on the sand if I so desired. Nice little crop of corals their. Have you ironed out the imbalance caused by the cal reactor and faulty skimmer pump?
Daniel :wildone:
Daniel :wildone:
Floyd R Turbo
Either busy or sleeping
Need a FTS!!!!!!
Bennytheblenny
Reef Geek
The PAR values I expected from the narrow lenses on the Radions are not quite there. If I went with the wide lenses i would need to add 3 more units, which is insane. The shimmer of the kessils is downright amazing. The colors are great and I have them hooked up to an Apex controller. How many inches from the water surface are you running your Radions? I am thinking of turning all of mine to perpendicular to the tank instead of parallel to see if i get better coverage that way. I already ended up nuking a policipora that I moved high up in the tank, so power up to 24 inches of dept is not a problem. I just need to see how my clams react to the shift.
I ended up restarting the Geo calcium reactor and have fixed the issues that I had. The skimmer is still a pain in the ***, but works well. I may get a new one next year, but I am not sure what brand to go with to replace the Deltec. My params are pretty stable now and I am hoping to see some success with corals soon. My other concern is that I have yet to be able to keep an anenome alive in the tank since I got it. Its a mystery.
MrineLfRlz
Active member
please update us after the lights are mounted and please more pics!
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